By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Jun 9 (IANS): A Thane court on Thursday sent Manoj Sane, who allegedly killed his live-in partner at their rented flat in Mira Road town, to police custody till June 16 even as it emerged that he is reportedly suffering from AIDS, while his "house of horror" revealed more macabre secrets.

Sane, 56, was arrested late on Wednesday after he tried to flee from a police team that barged into his flat following complaints from the neighbours of a stench emanating from his home for the past couple of days.

In a new twist, Sane has claimed to the investigators that the victim - his live-in partner, Saraswati Vaidya, 32, had allegedly consumed poison and committed suicide, but the police have rubbished the claims as an attempt to "mislead" the probe into the mind-numbing crime.

Continuing its probe, the police discovered that the flat in which the chilling crime was committed is a veritable "house of horrors" bang in the midst of a quiet and unsuspecting middle-class residential locality.

There were at least three buckets stuffed with body parts of the victim, lots of blood splattered on the floor, walls and the bathroom, an electric saw, sharp knives, a mixer-grinder and a pressure cooker, a nauseating stench emanating from there, which Sane tried to "kill" by spraying lots of air-fresheners.

Police have also recovered some bottles of oil, which he purportedly used to smear on the body parts to delay the stench, and later surreptitiously disposed off many pieces.

He allegedly boiled some body parts in a cooker and fed them to stray dogs in the vicinity and is also suspected to have dumped some pieces into the nearby mangroves.

Now, Sane - charged with murder, conspiracy, attempt to destroy evidence, etc - is said to be suffering from HIV but police are awaiting his medical report for further verification.

The police are also waiting for the forensic reports on the woman's body parts and other evidence the accused attempted to unsuccessfully destroy in his nearly-barren 7th floor flat in Akashdeep Building in Geeta Nagar area of Mira Road, a town that developed 35 years ago.

The exact motives of the chilling murder are yet to be ascertained, but Sane, who appears unrepentant, is being grilled by police teams.

Rattled by the revelations, the shaken residents in Mira Road discuss the sensational case in hushed tones, and some recall the couple as aloof, not mingling with the people around them and mostly keeping to themselves.

The inhuman murder - coming to light barely 24 hours after the brutal rape-cum-murder of an Akola girl in a government hostel in Mumbai - has created an uproar in political circles and rage among the masses and an outpour of angst on the social media.